a few minutes of fun...

These two have more fun together. While it is typical for children CJ and Anna Grace's age to parallel play, or play side by side, they have always played well together. I'm not saying they are like this all day, but for a good part of our days, they play with each other. I love it. These series of shots were all taken within 5 minutes of each other, so you can also get an idea for how B.U.S.Y these two are.

I first grabbed my camera because Anna Grace looked so pretty as she gazed out the front door. (Please don't judge me for the drool smudges on the window.)

Soon CJ realized Anna Grace was having fun without him, so he quickly came over to check out what was going on. They love to look out the front door and all our windows. We are lucky our windows are all about 6 inches from the floor. They have great views of the front and back yards that thoroughly entertain them.

Anna Grace had enough looking out the window, and went to say hi to Connor-dog (who it is hard to see) through the gate.

Then CJ had enough too, and went to find something else to play with.

Anna Grace followed, and they found the bug jug. They love to pull them out and put them back in. Luckily CJ's favorite are the spider and cricket and Anna Grace likes the lady bug and butterfly, so there's hardly any fighting over who gets what bug. I'm not lying...there is something to be said about gender preference even at a young age!

Then Anna Grace found something behind her....the air return vent. It makes a pretty noise when you hit it or strum your fingers over it.

You can see the bug jug fall as CJ decides he must join her for some musical fun.

And then it was back to the front door for these two. That was the end of our few minutes of fun...lots to do in such a short time. Do you wonder why I am tired at the end of the day keeping up with these two? Such a joy!

Then Daddy came home and took the camera; he caught CJ trying to feed mommy a (pretend) cookie. Such a sweet boy.

A few more sweet shots of my little charmer with crazy hair...

And then daddy wanted to play with the camera. I think these turned out really well.

We have so much fun around here!

i don't want my children to be happy...

I have been mulling this thought over in my head lately, and I found this link on a friend's blog. It sums up my thoughts, I couldn't give words, perfectly. I think it is a great post about what we should want for our kids and what we should hope and pray for them.

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-dont-want-my-children-to-be-happy.html

zoo atlanta fun

Friday we took a fun day and headed up to Atlanta. Anna Grace's mommy is a teacher and since it was spring break, it was a perfect chance to get away with the little ones. Anna Grace, her mommy, daddy, aunt and grandma and the hetzels all made the hour and a half drive and it was worth it!

I'm a horrible mommy and while I was putting sunscreen on CJ, I got it in his eye. :( Bad, bad, bad mommy...

Poor little guy. Can you see how his right eye is puffy? It watered and watered for about 20 minutes.

CJ has been pointing like crazy. Everything is point and grunt. He wants to know what things are. Point. "That's a light switch baby." Point. "Yes baby, Connor is barking." Point. "That's an elephant." With so many new things to look at at the zoo, there was lots of pointing.

Having a fun time! (With a watery eye)

He wasn't very into the parrot aviary. Lots of pointing...but no smiles. I guess that means no birds for pets. I had a bird when I was little, and I hated it. Smelly, loud and mean. This mama wasn't sad when he didn't love the birds.

He started to warm up when we got to the meerkats. They were very active and his eyes darted to try to follow them everywhere.

But the joy came when we got to the safari area. He freaked out. He was pointing everywhere and even said "wow" a few times. I had to tear him away from the exhibit. I think he would have stayed there all day.

Sweet Anna Grace and Stephanie. At the end of the day, I sure wish someone would carry me!

My favorite habitat was the gorillas. It was hard for the kids to see them because they were so far away or there was a big crowd around them. I think when CJ is a little bigger, he will love seeing them hulk around and eat oranges.

Scott's favorite was the komodo dragon. This guy was sleeping on the other side of the exhibit, but when Scott came in he woke up and came straight over to him for a closer look.

He smelled Scott all the way across the exhibit and then walked right up to him and pressed his nose against the glass right in front of him. Crazy...

After all the fun the kiddos were pooped out!

They weren't the only babies napping though...

The zoo was fun, but the best part of the day was The Cheesecake Factory. Oh my goodness...so yummy! A great way to end a great day.

pool time!

Oh what a glorious thing to have a house that is not only a home, but a house you love. Since Scott joined the Army we have lived in Army housing. It was nice, but you knew it wasn't yours, and it was never perfect. The house we bought in Georgia is a perfect fit for us. Our most recent project was to re-do the backyard. It is 95% finished. We need a few flowers and finishing touches and it will be just like we want it. The best addition was our 500+ square foot patio. There is a nice covered sitting area and another area for a fire pit and chairs, but most importantly between the two, there is room for a baby pool! CJ thoroughly enjoys bath time, so we were pretty certain the baby pool would be a big hit. When CJ's Nanny came last week for Easter, we broke out the pool and had soooo much fun. In fact, it's on our post-nap agenda today as well.

Disclaimer...this is a naked baby! If you know Scott well, this is one of the many ways this little guy is like his daddy. I chose pictures where boy parts are covered, but if I missed a few centimeters please don't be offended.

I'm not sure who is having more fun; CJ or daddy?

One our second pool afternoon, I put shorts and a hat on the little man. They lasted about 10 seconds. But isn't he a cutie in it? CJ's new favorite game is for me to put his hat on him and then for him to pull it off. When we went inside, he kept bringing me his hat and would fuss until I put it on his head and he could pull it off. Quite a fun game...

And lest you think Connor is left out of all our fun. She is right there with us. Last summer we had a yard turtle, Pete. He would come to our door and check out what we were doing, Connor would bark like a possessed beast at him, and then after awhile, he would meander away. We hadn't seen him for months, so we figured when we were gone, he must have found new people to watch. What we didn't realized was that Pete was actually a Petunia, and although she is gone, she left us a surprise! Connor was so intrigued. She guarded this little turtle. Or maybe she was trying to figure out how to eat him. Who knows, but she was not letting him/her out of her sight.

bath time!

Barring his first week of baths, this man LOVES bath time. He splashes, plays with toys, sucks on the wash cloth and tells me lots of stories. When we took these we were trying to get him to show all 4 of his teeth, and we got lots of smiles as well.

Only the bottom two...

Here's all four!